IBM SNOW Consulting Makes Supply Chains Greener

IBM recently launched a new consultation offering for businesses this time, concentrating on make companies' supply chains greener and more efficient.

IBM recently launched a new consultation offering for businesses this time, concentrating on make companies' supply chains greener and more efficient. The consultation service called Supply Chain Network Optimization Workbench or SNOW, has the capacity to help companies lower fuel usage and hence costs and emissions of their supply chains. It uses advanced mathematical methods to come up with a detailed analysis of the company's supply chain operations.

"Making your operations 'greener' and making them more economical are complementary, not contradictory," said Eric Riddleberger, global leader for IBM's business strategy consulting practice, who heads up the company's corporate social responsibility consulting efforts. "When you improve the overall efficiency of a system you can almost automatically lower cost, waste, and environmental impact."

SNOW looks at and evaluates five points in the supply chain process. It starts with the manufacturing stage, identifying the products' materials and help the companies find alternatives for those which might cause a large impact on the environment. Next, SNOW looks at the efficiency of the suppliers chosen and then at the production process itself. The storage facilities chosen are also evaluated and finally, the transportation and distribution are closely scrutinized. According to IBM, Chinese shipping giant COSCO was able to avoid 100,000 tons per year of CO2 emissions by reducing distribution centers from 100 to 40 and improving overall efficiency. To know more about IBM's supply chain consulting services, check out its official page.